Category Archives: Geography

We have made Education Quizzes free for a whole year so that students like Tom can sparkle too

Despite all the revision tips, tricks and techniques, the best way to help your pupils to retain the knowledge that they have learned in their Geography lessons is by presenting them with the opportunity to use this knowledge on a regular basis.

However, since there is more than one topic area to cover in Geography, it can sometimes be a long period of time until a topic is revisited, by which time your pupils will have forgotten much of what they had previously learned.

Which is why we have produced an extensive library of Geography quizzes and made them free to use for a whole year, so that your students can test and revise their knowledge as frequently as they need and want to.

What’s more, Education Quizzes is ideal to set as homework tasks as it involves little to no PPA time – giving you more time to focus on planning and preparing future lessons and assessing the work of your students from lessons which have gone before.

Many pupils are passionate about the welfare of animals though, if surveys are to be believed, many of them do not know how their bacon, eggs and milk are produced!

Food production is a growing topic of debate whether you are talking about the ethics of how we treat animals, how we produce healthy food, and how we can feed a growing population.

Finding time to discuss topics such as animal welfare and sustainable food production is doubly valuable – it gives pupils an important understanding of a range of ethical and environmental factors and it encourages great debates!

To help you to engage your pupils in such discussions we provide a free speaker service and a pack of resources including a film and discussion activities which can be adapted for pupils of different ages, abilities, and levels of confidence.

To enquire about a speaker or to order a free resource pack, please email education@ciwf.org.uk with “Geography mailshot” in the subject title.

To view or download the resources directly, including films, please go to our Geography webpage.

Yours faithfully

Phil Brooke
Education Manager
Compassion in World Farming

PS We’ve had some wonderful evaluations from teachers for our talks and resources:

“We have really ‘enjoyed’ using your pack. It stirred up a huge amount of interest and discussion”
“Thanks for inspiring and IMPORTANT material – which is very difficult to come by.”

I give talks and have spoken to over 120 schools in the United Kingdom both at primary and secondary levels. In the course of my expeditions into the Chinese former nuclear test area to establish a Nature Reserve to protect the critically endangered wild camel (a new and separate species of camel), I had numerous adventures. The area in the Gobi Desert is one of the remotest in the world and no foreigner had previously been there for 45 years.

I also worked in the area where Boko Haram have been operating and I give another talk on the historical background to Boko Haram. This is illustrated with photos unique to the area including the tribe from which the schoolgirls were abducted

Finally I crossed the Sahara on a camel which took me a hundred days from Lake Chad in Nigeria to Tripoli in Libya. Please see below synopses of five of my talks. I hope they may be of interest, as I should like to present one of them to your school. My fee is £220 plus travel.

The first survey traversed some hitherto unexplored sand dunes near the northern Tibet escarpment that led John Hare into two undiscovered valleys and a fresh water spring that held pockets of wildlife that had no fear of man. In addition to observing 169 critically endangered wild camels, the expedition also observed the Tibetan ass, Argali wild sheep, wolves and bears at extraordinarily close quarters. On a return visit six years later, John Hare discovered that illegal miners had entered the area and in their search for gold had poisoned the spring and the vegetation with potassium cyanide and shot the wildlife. The third and most recent trek highlights what has happened since then The talk concludes with an illustration of the highly successful captive wild camel breeding programme which the charity that John Hare founded, the Wild Camel Protection Foundation, initiated in Mongolia.

Lecture 2: The Mysteries of Lop Nur 50 colour slides/CD – 50 minutes

In 1905 the Swedish explorer Sven Hedin discovered intriguing mummified figures dating from 1500 BC near the ancient city of Lou Lan on the middle Silk Road. John Hare reached Lou Lan from the east in 1996, after a hazardous adventure and became the first person in recorded history to do so. He discovered an outpost of Lou Lan called Tu-Ying where cloth and felt dating from 1000 BC was preserved in remarkable condition. The weave of this cloth, similar to that used to wrap up the Hedin mummies, points to a similarity to the weave of ancient cloth found in Salzburg, Germany. It is possible that the mummified figures, with their striking Caucasian features might be Celts who came to western China during successive waves of migration. Slides show the city, the mummies and the cloth and John Hare speculates on what is for the Chinese, a highly political subject.

Lecture 3: Across the Sahara. Travels on a camel from Lake Chad to Tripoli 50 colour slides/CD – 50 minutes.

In the winter months of 2001/2002, John Hare made a journey with camels from Lake Chad in Nigeria to Tripoli in Libya. A Chinese Professor and a Kenyan farmer accompanied him. The journey took three and a half months and covered 1462 miles. There were many adventures and discoveries en route, including rock art over 2500 years old that had not previously been discovered. The journey was made along an ancient camel route and it was the first time in 100 years that the journey had been made in its entirety. The lecture shows pictures of the Libyan desert that had been out-of-bounds to foreigners for over 50 years.

John Hare was the last man to be recruited in Northern Nigeria by the British Government before Nigerian independence and worked in this remote north-eastern area of Borno and Adamawa for almost seven years before and after independence. The area where he worked covered the village where the 220 girls were recently kidnapped by Boko Haram and he knows the Mandara mountain range and the villages and towns located in those hills intimately. He had access to historical records and witnessed the deteriorating relationships between the Muslims and these animists, many of whom had by this time been converted to Christianity by Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries. Hare explains from personal knowledge, how Boko Haram and the clash between Islam and Christianity in Northern Nigeria started and how it has developed into a bloody conflict in 2014.

An account of two releases into the Gobi Desert of young bull wild camels which were bred at the Wild Camel Protection Foundation’s Wild Camel Breeding Centre in Mongolia. Both were successful and involved 8 wild camels in total. There were, however, many incidents and difficulties involved in their release and the overall story is interlaced with adventure, a death, danger and humour. This is a record of the first time EVER that wild camels have been released into the Gobi – producing startling results.

The Northumberland countryside is the perfect setting for exploring. We offer a range of specialised activity sessions such as ‘Den Building’, ‘Photo Trails’, ‘Minibeast Hunts,’ ‘Search and Rescue’ and Falconry. These activities are the perfect foundation for exploring the local area, discovering natural materials, sharing awareness for the environment and its habitats, developing map reading skills and team work.

A real medieval castle, surrounded by vast grounds that encompass a range of challenging on-site activities, Ford Castle is also the perfect setting for educational local excursions; with options to try canoeing, crag climbing, or nature walks, visiting Bamburgh Beach or even spending a day in Edinburgh City and many more.

Ford Castle and the Great Outdoors are ready for you and your school to explore and enjoy! Bring your class closer to nature with March dates starting from as little as £119 + VAT per student.

All our prices are fully inclusive, covering: comfortable accommodation, three delicious meals a day, and plenty of stimulating on-site activities – with additional options of excursions and off-site activities available.

What is the single most effective way of reducing your school’s overall expenditure on school trips (without making cuts to school trips)?

A study which was carried out in America revealed that that a massive 82% of pupils could recall information that they had learnt on a school trip a year later – proving the extent to which learning outside the classroom is beneficial to pupils’ academic attainment.

The problem, however, is that offering lots of learning outside the classroom experiences to your pupils can be expensive to the point of being unaffordable, not least due to the transport that is needed to get pupils from A to B.

Fortunately, there is a solution – a growing number of secondary schools are finding that by leasing a school minibus (meaning that there is no initial large payment required – just a monthly lease fee) rather than purchasing a minibus outright, costs are significantly reduced.

Better still, by leasing a school minibus with Benchmark, any repairs, servicing and the like are included in the arrangement with the costs conveniently built into the lease price.

Moreover, a growing number of secondary schools are also finding that by sharing their minibus with a nearby school that is in the same cluster, trust or council as they are, the transport costs are halved, and thus, their overall expenditure on school outings is reduced.

If you haven’t leased a minibus or thought about sharing one, please do give me a call on 01753 859944 and I can talk you through how it all works.

But if you want to take a look at who we are and what we do before you call, you’ll find more information about leasing at www.minibusleasing.co.uk

Field Studies Council (FSC) is a leading provider of fieldwork and environmental learning. We also use this expertise to deliver training to teachers, to help enable them to undertake more learning outside the classroom with their students.

Spend time with our passionate and experienced field teachers who love to inspire.

Enjoy comfortable, full board accommodation at our centres, included with residential courses.

Take away fresh ideas to help you back at school.

Here is a selection of the courses coming up in the FSC teacher training programme:

GCSE and A Level Geography Fieldwork Data SkillsSat 19-Sun 20 November 2016 £50 FSC Juniper Hall, SurreyThis course offers teachers the opportunity to improve their skills in providing high quality ‘first hand’ outdoor fieldwork and is designed to support teaching of the new specifications. Run in partnership with the Royal Geographical Society.

A Level Rivers and HydrologySat 11-Sun 12 February 2017 £50 FSC Preston Montford, ShropshireThroughout the course, participants will gain practical experience of planning and carrying out Geography fieldwork research and investigations, designed to support the learning taking place in school.

Includes a full school site PC and network licence, nothing more to pay EVER! Free 14-day trial , so if you don’t like it you can just send it back. All 10 of these individual great titles are included in the pack for just £100 for everything:

Acid Rain; Deforestation; Desertification; Global Warming; The Work Of Ice; The Work Of Rivers; The Work Of The Sea; Urban Geography; Weather and Climate 1; Weather and Climate 2

It’s just £100 for all 10 of these software titles in one pack!

Now isn’t that truly staggering value for money for all these titles from the UK’s leading curriculum software supplier? Let’s beat the cuts!click here

The first in the range of our brand new Teaching Packs for the 2016 GCSE AQA specification is available now. Scheme of work, lesson plans and activities designed specifically for the new 2016 GCSE AQA specification for Unit 1: Section C: Physical Landscapes of the UK.

Engaging and well-thought-out schemes, designed by teachers around the specified learning objectives. Each resource covers a particular section of the specification. Ease your planning and cultivate pupils’ love for Geography!

Many pupils are passionate about the welfare of animals though, if surveys are to be believed, many of them do not know how their bacon, eggs and milk are produced!

Food production is a growing topic of debate whether you are talking about the ethics of how we treat animals, how we produce healthy food or how we can feed a growing population.

Finding time to discuss topics such as animal welfare and sustainable food production is doubly valuable – it gives pupils an important understanding of a range of ethical and environmental factors and it encourages great debates!

To help you to engage your pupils in such discussions, we provide a free speaker service and a pack of resources including a film and discussion activities, which can be adapted for pupils of different ages, abilities and levels of confidence.

To enquire about a speaker or to order a free resource pack, please email education@ciwf.org.uk with “Geography mailshot” in the subject title.

To view or download the resources directly, including films, please go to our Geography webpage.

Yours faithfully

Phil Brooke
Education Manager
Compassion in World Farming

PS We’ve had some wonderful evaluations from teachers for our talks and resources:

“We have really ‘enjoyed’ using your pack. It stirred up a huge amount of interest and discussion”

“Thanks for inspiring and IMPORTANT material – which is very difficult to come by.”

This resource will be useful for students in their revision throughout and at the end of their Geography GCSE AQA A course. It is based on what successful students have described as one of the most effective revision techniques they have used.

It is an idea that has been further developed from observing a son’s keen interest in collecting football cards and it is fascinating to watch how children collect and make use of these cards and how these cards are stored.

An extensive checklist of questions based on the specification and past exam questions for the popular AQA A geography specification has been produced providing a valuable planning and revision resource. It can be used by teachers and students to plan curriculum coverage and identify strengths and weaknesses.

Answers to accompany all of these questions are designed to provide the sufficient knowledge to help students achieve an A* and cover the gaps in the resources provided by other authors, especially when it comes to more lengthy answers, but in particular for case study questions.

There are also flashcards for all 372 questions. On one side of a flashcard is a question and on the other the answer. These cards are in PowerPoint and if you print off the documents back to back they are then ready to be cut up. There are a maximum of nine cards and answers on an A4 sheet.

These resources are for the 6 most popular topics therefore providing the curriculum coverage needed for the AQA A specification.

This 39 page set of revision notes for GCSE Geography, Unit 2, Human Geography (written specifically for AQA A but suitable for all students studying the topics) is another good value for money download from Natalie Adams.

The 39 pages of notes come with colour illustrations that bring the “human geography” to life at each stage of the student’s revision.

The revision notes cover the following topics:

Population Change

Development Gap

Tourism

Throughout there are summary points such as “what you need to know” and “key terms” so that students can see at once the key points of their study, and ensure that they have the basics before moving on to more complex issues. In addition each topic contains common exams questions taken from previous past exam series.

GCSE Revision Guide for AQA Unit 2: Human Geography is published as a download so that you can receive immediately a copy onto your computer which you can print out for colleagues as often as you want. You can also put it on your school learning platform so all staff can access the document – and indeed you can make it part of the induction documentation for new members of staff.

The price is £10 plus VAT (the VAT can be reclaimed in most cases by the school).

GCSE Revision Guide for AQA Unit 2: Human Geography is published by First and Best in Education, part of the Hamilton House group. If you have any enquiries you can call 01536 399 011, or email sales@firstandbest.co.uk or write to us at First and Best, Hamilton House, Earlstrees Ct., Earlstrees Rd., Corby, Northants NN17 4HH.

Would you like to be able to set this presentation as home revision for your students?Doddle resources can be used outside the classroom! With Doddle you can assign your students presentations, activities, and self marking quizzes to do in their own time.

How is it possible for a dedicated student to fail to get the grades s/he wants despite long hours of revision?

All too often, the answer is simple. The type of revision that has been done at home by this promising student has been ineffective, focusing on knowledge acquisition rather than understanding.

It is this observation that leads to the thought that the knowledge one needs to give to students is that knowledge is not quite as important as they think.

The typical weighting for knowledge in a GCSE Geography exam is only between 30 and 40% of the marks. But, despite this fact, left to their own devices some of my students would happily devote near to 100% of their geography revision time to the retention of knowledge.

Some, in pursuit of the magical A* grade, will recreate their notes into beautifully colour co-ordinated works of Post-It note art or elaborate mind maps. But still, despite all the work, these students will ignore the other 60-70% of the marks that are not knowledge based.

So, it may be argued that in the classroom the teacher no longer has to emphasise knowledge. As creatures of habit, students will still spend plenty of time on knowledge acquisition, leaving the teacher free to fill their revision sessions with activities that enable them to practise applying that knowledge and honing their skills.

“The Secret to Successful Revision” makes clear that students retain more by actively re-working their knowledge in different ways than by reading revision guides or following revision lessons. It deals with methods of revising geography which take into account the way exams are marked. It covers “command words” and “maximising marks on terms and definitions”, simplifying case studies, using data from graphs and maps, and much more.

The Secret to Successful Revision is published as a download so that you can receive immediately a copy onto your computer which you can print out for colleagues as often as you want.

The price is £10 plus VAT (the VAT can be reclaimed in most cases by the school).

The Secret to Successful Revision is published by First and Best in Education, part of the Hamilton House group. If you have any enquiries you can call 01536 399 011, or email sales@firstandbest.co.uk or write to us at First and Best, Hamilton House, Earlstrees Ct., Earlstrees Rd., Corby, Northants NN17 4HH.

The KS3 National Curriculum requires an understanding, through the use of detailed place-based exemplars, of key processes in physical geography relating to coasts. This means an understanding of how human and physical processes interact to influence and change landscapes, and how human activity relies on effective functioning of natural systems.

This Coastal Erosion Resource looks at erosion at Beachy Head on the south coast and forms an enquiry. The question to be answered is

‘We wish to consult with you on the future of our home. What should we do?’

The question relates to the old lighthouse ‘La Belle Tout’ which has been turned into a guest house. Due to coastal erosion the lighthouse was on the verge of collapsing into the sea, as the coastal management strategy along this stretch of coast is ‘to do nothing’.

Both coastal erosion processes and coastal management strategies are drawn upon. There is a clear link between human and physical processes as the bed and breakfast guest house provides employment and the impact of physical processes means the guest house could be washed away due to coastal erosion.

A Powerpoint Presentation with 34 slides £29.99 (£35.99 including VAT)

Once purchased, the CD can be freely copied and networked throughout the school!

Geography Starter Activities – a set of starter activities – crosswords, puzzles, wordsearches, etc – designed for pupils at KS3. It is provided in a photocopiable format so that sheets can be copied and given out to pupils as required – and obviously re-used as much as you wish.

Search Taster Day Events – helps Geography teachers to discover an array of events to book students on to, such as university and college taster days, workshops, residentials, open days, outreach events and widening participation opportunities.

How will you handle the ‘Superpower Geographies’ AIB for Unit 3?
The new Edexcel Unit 3 Pre-release topic is out and this year it’s all about Superpower Geographies, specifically 21st Century Superpowers: India and China. A side by side comparison between the two most populous nations on the planet, exploring their differing strategies as they grow and develop is sure to be an exciting and engaging topic.

At this time of year many A Level Edexcel Geography teachers start frantically researching and preparing resources for the Edexcel Unit 3 Advance Information Booklet. This year, don’t be one of them!

Following the success of last year’s Edexcel Unit 3Pre-Release Resource Pack from ZigZag Education we are once again helping take the pressure off teachers and give your students the best preparation for their exams.

Not only does it provide activities to walk students through the AIB and get them thinking about the synoptic links to the other topics, but teachers and students alike get material to teach the background of the topic. 2 practice papers on both sections of the Unit 3 exam are included, each with a full mark scheme, specific to the topic, and ideal for a mock exam.

Don’t forget Unit 4 –‘Option 1: Tectonics’
Volcanic and seismic processes are perhaps the most influential of the Earth’s natural phenomena in shaping the landscapes we live in. Despite their incredible destructive abilities they also have the power to create new landforms, indeed new land!

The Research steer is now available and for the first time we have two new resources supporting Unit 4 to help your students to deliver the perfect essays in the Unit 4 exam.

Pack 1: The Edexcel Pre-release Teaching & Research Pack: Tectonics can be used both this year and next year to see you through to the end of the current teaching specification. It focuses on the planning, structure and execution of the perfect essay – regardless of the research focus! It’s available for immediate dispatch.

Plan for the Edexcel Unit 4 exam with confidence! Order your Teaching & Research Pack now for immediate dispatch at http://zzed.uk/WX77b

Pack 2: The Edexcel Pre-release Steer Pack: 2016 Tectonics targets the specifics of this year’s research focus material for Option 1 and helps to shape your students’ planning and research and get to grips with the most relevant aspects of the annual topic. It’s the perfect companion to Pack 1!

Get to grips with the specifics of the Unit 4 Tectonics steer! Pre-Order your Pre-release Steer Pack now at http://zzed.uk/WX77c

Key Stage 3 Aged 11-14

Case study – Television Tourism

What impact does the filming of TV soaps have on people, place and the environment?

This topic has been designed for Key Stage 3. It links with the human geography aspect of the National Curriculum which requires consideration of urbanisation and an understanding of how human processes interact to influence and change landscapes and environments. It looks at the filming of TV programmes such as the ‘soaps’ and the impact of filming on people, place and the environment. This resource is based on the TV programme ‘Neighbours’ which although set in Australia, can be linked to the personal experience of the learner considering themselves as neighbours. Fieldwork activities could be designed to link with this topic and a wealth of programmes can be considered and referred to such as Emmerdale, East Enders and Coronation Street. All of these programmes have much to offer geographically, Coronation Street, for example, is a typical inner city street with distinct lack of front garden, garages etc wheras Emmerdale depicts a rural community.

So what impact DOES television tourism have on people, place and the environment?

32 Powerpoint Slides – Price: £24.99 – (£29.99 Inc. VAT)

Once purchased the CD can be freely copied and networked throughout the school.

Key issues in energy for Geography – Key Stages 4-5

DVD Pack: 6 Units + Activity Sheets

This is the energy debate in its geographical context. It features UK nuclear power stations, wind farms, coal and oil fired power station, hydro, CHP, the BedZED zero carbon project and the Centre for Alternative Energy. The people that work in energy and industry experts spell out the facts and the options clearly and succinctly. How will the UK meet its energy needs?

Stone Age assembly and writing workshops

Tie in story writing with your history topic and bring the past to life with a Stone Age assembly. It’s fun and interactive. Pupils will get hands on with a mammoth hunt and find out about Neolithic life.

The Stone Age assembly is a perfect primer for story writing workshops where pupils will write their own stories. We’ll use the innovative Accelerated writing method (as used by Creative Writing Club). I’m a children’s author who teaches creative writing in schools, so I can also answer their questions on writing and perform short extracts from my book.

As well as the stone age, other topics include: The Bronze Age, the Iron Age Celts, the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Romans, the Celts, the Anglo Saxons, the Aztecs, Mayans, the Great Fire of London, Flooded world (natural disasters), the Vikings, the Normans, the Tudors, the Victorians, Shakespeare, Traditional tales, the Rainforest and many more. I’m an ex-BBC editor and I can also offer workshops on factual writing (using a historical frame).

About me
I’ve written 14 books for children, over a wide age range (Y1-Y9) including: Spartapuss (Romans), Beowuff (Anglo Saxons vs Vikings) Olympuss Games (Greeks), Boudicat (Celts), Cleocatra’s Kushion (Egyptians). My graphic novel ‘London Deep’ was chosen as a Recommended Read for World Book Day. I co-wrote the musical version of Julia Donaldson’s books The Gruffalo and Room on the Broom. I’ve led writing workshops for Shakespeare’s Birthplace Trust and The Young Archaeologists Club. Check out my profile on Love Reading For Kids:

We recently set up a Facebook and Twitter page to accumulate a vast amount of Learning Outside the Classroom research, news, free resources, locations, ideas and transport solutions to make implementing LOtC easier for everyone.

Below is just an example of some of the LOtC items that we have shared with our Facebook and Twitter followers thus far.

Includes a full school site PC and network licence, nothing more to pay EVER! Free 14-day trial , so if you don’t like it you can just send it back. All 10 of these individual great titles are included in the pack for just £150 for everything:

Acid Rain; Deforestation; Desertification; Global Warming; The Work Of Ice; The Work Of Rivers; The Work Of The Sea; Urban Geography; Weather and Climate 1; Weather and Climate 2

It’s just £150 for all 10 of these software titles in one pack!

Now isn’t that truly staggering value for money for all these titles from the UK’s leading curriculum software supplier? Let’s beat the cuts!

As we all know, the first five minutes of any lesson tends to determine how the rest of the lesson will go. If the lesson gets going on the wrong track, it is generally very hard to pull it back.

Therefore what we aim to do is engage the pupils and students as soon as they enter the room, preventing instances of boredom that can lead to poor behaviour, while at the same time setting the tone for the rest of the lesson. The pupils have engaged in work right from the start.

Geography Starters is a set of starter activities – crosswords, puzzles, wordsearches – which aim to get each lesson going in a manner which is interesting and invigorating for the students while at the same time setting the scene for serious study.

The volume contains some 40 activities in two groups – mental starters and worksheet starters (which can be copied and handed out to each student).

The mental starters include anagrams, what if? questions, odd one out, etc. The photocopiable worksheets focus on specific areas of geography such as tectonics, oceans and seas, coasts, development, guess the country, natural hazards, the weather, population, and so on.

The volume, of course, comes with a complete set of answers, so that you can check answers in a full-class session or hand out the answers to the students at the end of the lesson